Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Sunday Night Dinner: Moroccan Chickpea Soup

 Cake that I made to celebrate first week of classes! (somewhat self explanatory) Please ignore the crappy piping.

So my sister moved to Baltimore a few weeks ago, and because she's a penniless grad student, and I'm the most awesome sister on the face of the planet, I have instituted Sunday Night Family Dinners. So once a week, I'm going to cook her dinner, and make enough leftovers that she gets to take some home. The first week I made chicken and dumplings, Last week I made turkey chili, and yesterday I made Moroccan chickpea soup. It's a recipe that is easily adopted to be vegan, or vegetarian (if you swap out the chicken broth for veggie broth) and it is hearty and tasty. 

I also made her a batch of cous cous, which is one of her favorites, and I will post a recipe for sometime soon. 


She's also on a healthy eating kick, so I've been trying to make things that are on the healthier side. If you have any (relatively inexpensive, healthy dishes that make a lot of leftovers, send them on on over!



This recipe is adapted from a Dave Lieberman recipe from Food Network. I've bumped up the spices, and added more tomatoes, but I largely stuck to the recipe for this one.


 These are my leftovers. mmm, soup.

Moroccan Chickpea Soup


1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for garnish
1 large onion, medium diced
6 to 8 cloves garlic, pressed
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 heaping teaspoon sweet paprika
1 (28 oz.) can chopped tomatoes
3 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed well
1 quart vegetable broth or reduced-sodium chicken broth
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
(5-ounce) package pre-washed baby spinach




Directions: in a big pot, turn heat to medium high and add olive oil. Saute onions and garlic until onions are translucent. Add spices and toast for about 2 minutes in the pot, stirring frequently (it is at about this time your house will begin to smell amazing)  Then add tomatoes, Chickpeas, broth and salt to taste.  Bring to a simmer, and  Simmer for 45 minutes.  If you feel so inclined, take your potato masher (or immersion blender, or large bottomed glass) and mash up some of the chickpeas to add texture. About 3 minutes before serving, put spinach in, put lid on pot, and let it wilt.  before serving, grind a bunch of black pepper in it.

Serve! 

(up this week: Curry chicken salad sandwiches, butternut squash soup, and baked apples)

1 comment:

  1. that sounds good...and a lot like a recipe I make: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/spiced-butternut-squash-stew-with-couscous-recipe/index.html

    but this one has butternut squash in it, which makes anything better.

    here is a really easy, healthy, delicious, and re-heatable recipe that I make often: http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/09/couscous-and-feta-stuffed-peppers/
    also very easy to sub ingredients.

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